There are fewer carcinogens in organic food, which is likely why consumption of organic food reduces cancer risk. In an extensive study from France a large number of patients received questionnaires about their organic food intake.
The study was also reviewed by CNN using more popular language to describe the … [Read More...]

You are not alone when you are sleepless. Insomnia is a widespread problem in society.
Previous review of the topic of insomnia
I have reviewed the topic of insomnia before in a blog.
Briefly I pointed out that in some people there is a mutation of the gene that controls the circadian sleep rhythm. It is called … [Read More...]

Four diseases cause most of the deaths around the world: cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory diseases and diabetes. This story is the news right now. 50% of the 193 UN member states that signed a treaty in 2015 are falling short of their promise. They wanted to reduce premature deaths from these … [Read More...]

October 20, 2018 by Ray Schilling · Comments Off on Leg Paralysis Can Be Treated

Several publications show that leg paralysis can be treated. This goes against the clinical experiences throughout the world. The common school of thought was that spinal cord injuries from a severe accident would lead to permanent damage. New research has proven that this is not so.
The publication to show that … [Read More...]

October 13, 2018 by Ray Schilling · Comments Off on Distribution Of Obesity In Women And Men Is Different

The distribution of obesity in women and men is different, when they gain weight on a low fat/high carb diet. The distribution of fat follows a pear shape in women due to fat accumulated around the hips. In males excessive fat accumulates around the waist, which gives them an apple shape appearance.
Researchers … [Read More...]

October 6, 2018 by Ray Schilling · Comments Off on Health Risks After Hurricanes

We hear a lot about the dangers of hurricanes when they are in a region, but very little regarding health risks after hurricanes. I thought it would be interesting to review all of the health risks in a blog.
Health risks during a hurricane
A lot of the health risks during a hurricane are directly related to the … [Read More...]

In mid October 2002 the British Medical Journal(BMJ 2002;325:p.857-860) published a paper by Dr. Mika Kivimäki from the University of Helsinki where 812 healthy factory workers were followed for about 25 years. The issue was whether stress from work would have negative consequences, which could be measured in terms of cardiovascular disease. Various risk groups were defined from low stress to high stress.

Low stress jobs were classified as people who often had more training, more responsibilities, better salaries, physically less strenuous jobs with more job security. High stress jobs involved the opposite(high demand/low job control/low salary/no job security). Depending on which subgroups of high versus low risks were compared, the investigators found a 2.2 to 2.4-fold increase of strokes and heart attacks due to cardiovascular disease.The team measured other cardiovascular risk factors. They found a significant increase of cholesterol in the high stress job group after 5 years. After 10 years there was a marked weight gain in the stressed group with obesity becoming much more frequent. The authors noted that this likely led to a change of metabolism in the sense of hyperinsulinism, which is known to cause high cholesterol levels and leads to hardening of the arteries with heart attacks and strokes.

Believe it or not: Harp music following serious chest or heart surgery in 17 patients leads to pain relief according to Aragon and colleagues. They reported this mid September 2002 (Altern Ther Health Med 2002;8:p.52-60) and they were measuring blood pressure, pulse, respiratory rate as well as pain and anxiety by psychological assessments to measure the effect on pain perception after listening to 20 minutes of harp music. The pain reduction was about 70% at the end of a 20 minute session and lasted at least 10 minutes (when the 20 minute and 30 minute point from the beginning of the harp music session were compared). This experiment documents the relaxation response, which is known from hypnotherapy as well and can also be brought on by meditation, yoga or prayer. The authors suggest that music therapy following surgeries could be utilized to promote healing and to reduce complications. Other health care settings where such a therapy might be useful would be in the treatment of anxiety disorders, where a reduction in anti-anxiety drugs under psychiatric guidance may be achievable.

Harp Music After Heart Or Chest Surgery Reduces Pain By Seventy Percent

Our ancestors already knew the benefits of fresh air and the fact that your grandmother likely knew: country living is healthier than city living. Let me qualify this somewhat: A recent study from the Netherlands showed that smog in cities has a detrimental effect on a person’s health (based on Lancet 2002;360:p.1203-1209). Dr. Gerard Hoek and his team from the Utrecht University revisited a group of about 5000 patients 15 years after the completion of a lung cancer study that was done in 1986 on these patients.

The authors looked up the addresses and classified two groups based on where these patients lived in 1986, either beside a busy congested road in the city or in a rural country area. 11% of the patient population had died of lung or heart disease during this period of time. When all of the other factors were kept constant and only the area where they lived was different, these authors found a significant 2-fold difference, which was attributed to chronic exposure to air pollution from traffic. The main reasons for this difference, they stated, was due to chronic exposure to black smoke and nitrogen dioxide from the exhaust fumes of cars. This study showed that air pollution by itself can double the death rate over a longer time period such as 15 years. In other words: It matters what you breathe! Useful related links to chapters of my free Internet based Nethealthbook:

When the lining of the womb grows into the Fallopian tubes, this can be a cause of scarring of the tubes and lead to infertility of the woman.

Up to this point in time medical science had no explanation for cases where the surgeon found only a few spots of endometriosis on the surface of the womb inside the abdominal cavity without any disease in the fallopian tubes. Dr.Ovrang Djahanbakhch and his coworkers from the The Royal London Hospital in London found that there is a factor contained in the abdominal fluid of women who have endometriosis (article published in the Lancet 2002;360:p.1221-1222). These investigators looked at fallopian tubes of hysterectomy samples (=wombs that were surgically removed) and studied the movement of the cells lining them under a special microscope.

Hair cells can be seen that are lining the Fallopian tubes and are normally responsible for the transport of the released egg at the time of ovulation. They found that when they added abdominal fluids from women who have endometriosis, the wave like pattern of these hair cells (=known as “ciliary movement”) came to almost a standstill. Abdominal fluids of women with no sign of endometriosis did not cause such a slowdown. This finding sheds important new information on our understanding of the nature of endometriosis and may some day lead to the development of new fertility drugs.

Endometriosis Is A Cause Of Infertility, Even Without Scarring

At this point the chemical factor from patients with endometriosis that is responsible for the slow-down of the normal ciliary movement has not yet been isolated. The authors will pursue this line of research further. Here are some links that are related to this topic:

Based on an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA 2002;288:p.1994-2000) Dr. Mihaela Tanasescu and his group from Loma Linda University in California have followed more than 44,000 health care professionals every 2 years for 12 years.

He asked the question whether a difference could be found between light, moderate or heavy exercise in the prevention of heart attacks.

Here is what they found: 1700 new cases of heart attacks as a result from hardening of arteries were mostly found in those who did NOT exercise or were in the LIGHT aerobic category. The more the persons exercised, the more pronounced the heart protective effect was. For instance, the group of men who engaged in a heavy exercise program had developed 17% less heart disease than the group with the light exercise program. Contrary to the marathon runner studies that had reported a detrimental effect at the high end, this study did not find this effect.

Also, this study is one of the first to show that weight training and other muscle strengthening activities also reduced strokes and heart attacks. Up to now the medical community was of the opinion that body building type muscle training might not prevent strokes or heart attacks.